Connecting properties such as the base and action bodies, the location and shaft axes on the bodies are defined in the Universal Joint creation dialog as shown in the figure and table below. While creating the joint, two markers are simultaneously created to represent the joint. The rotational axes of the two bodies can be determined from the specified shaft axes. The shaft axes are defined from the x-axes of the base and action markers. The rotational axis of base body is determined as follows.
 | (5–1) |
where, the vectors 
and 
are the user-specified shaft direction for the base body and the
reference direction which is the y-axis of the inertia reference frame. If the shaft
direction coincides with the reference direction, it is changed to the z-axis of the
inertia reference frame. The rotational axis of the action body can be defined by
the following equation.
 | (5–2) |
where, the vector 
is the user-specified shaft direction for the action body. The
rotational axes of the base and action bodies become the z-axes of the base and
action markers.
Figure 5.59: Description of parameters in the Universal Joint creation dialog
| Parameter | Description |
| 1. Base Body | Use to set the base body using the General Picker. This defines the parent body of the base marker. |
| 2. Action Body | Use to set the action body using the General Picker. This defines the parent body of the action marker. |
| 3. Position | Use to set the location on the base and action bodies using the Point Picker. This defines the position of the base and action markers. |
| 4. Base X-axis | Use to set the shaft axis on the base body using the Direction Picker. This defines the x-axis of the base marker. |
| 5. Action X-axis | Use to set the shaft axis on the action body using the Direction Picker. This defines the x-axis of the action marker. |
| 6. Name | Use to set the name of the Universal Joint. |
| 7. Show Property Dialog | Use to open the property dialog after finishing the creation operation. |
| 8. Control buttons | If all necessary parameters are set, these buttons are enabled. For more information about the control buttons, refer to Entity Creation. |